Week 5 (Development) - This week, I refined my idea and worked on a prototype in preparation for the midweek webinar (Pre-Production). In addition, this CRJ post covers most (if not all) of RI/E1development (Production) - starting at 'Pre-Production' through to 'Production'. Preparation for this rapid ideation event can be read here.
A Murder of Crows (Refined Idea)
I plan to develop a 2D platformer inspired by Unfair Mario (2011). The objective is to get the 'Crow Priest' (player) to the end of the map with minimum casualties. The player will have the ability to use crows to scout the map and overcome out-of-reach obstacles (making it different from Unfair Mario). In addition, I plan to implement score-based features and other mechanics designed to frustrate the player, such as implementing obscene rules like invisible threats. By trial and error, I hope the player will become familiar with the locations of said threats, thus learning how to reach the end of the level. I believe this idea has the potential of tapping into the majority of themes identified in the planning stage.
Pre-Production
Unfortunately, due to time, I abandoned the additional part of the game jam, which was to select and "news headline", as I did not want to compromise the clear vision I had in mind with the Dixit Card. Moreover, I did not account for time spent researching and implementing a headline of my choosing.
Sketches (GIMP)
Figure 1: Initial Sketches (Map design and UI)
After deciding what to do, I drew up some initial sketches of the map and user interface I would later implement in Unity (Figure 1). I did this after researching prototyping tools in week three. I needed a quick way to convey my thoughts into ideas, and thus, I began sketching. In hindsight, I could have chosen alternate methods that may have assisted more with design, such as 'Paper Prototyping'. Although, I felt sketching was a simple starting point for my first rapid ideation project.
Game Prototype (Unity)
Figure 2: A Murder of Crows (Proof of Concept)
When the initial sketches were complete, I opted to take a more practical approach, so I began to prototype the idea in Unity (Figure 2). I decided to do this because I was apprehensive about how much time was being used for planning and preparation. I used this phase to develop a proof of concept that would showcase move and follower mechanics (the latter using a special collection in C#, known as a queue to function - more on that later).
Although game prototyping proved to be an effective tool, other elements of the project, such as task management (Trello), suffered as a consequence. I was so focused on developing the game in Unity that these other aspects were left forgotten. I naturally moved on from prototyping to implementing the entire idea to the best of my abilities.
Production
Figure 3: Version Control (GitHub)
I started by implementing GitHub (Version Control Software) - a tool used to back up and track development (Figure 3). In hindsight, I may not have needed to implement VCS as it is most effective in teams and larger projects, however, I believe it is considered good practice.
Art & Assets
Figure 4: (Platformer Set, 2019)
Figure 5: (Free Street Animal Pixel Art Asset Pack, 2021)
Figure 6: Crow Priest (Aseprite)
Although one of my goals was to "focus on art", unfortunately, I could not afford to delegate a significant amount of time to this objective. As such, I downloaded assets from the Unity Asset Store (Figure 4) and CraftPix.net (Figure 5). I did manage to create the player character (Figure 6) using an application called Aseprite. I decided to use pixel art on the premise of using Unity's tile-map system. Furthermore, it shadows the look of Unfair Mario (2011).
Level Design
Figure 7: Level Design (Unity Tile-map)
Using a single scene, I constructed the entire level with Unity's inbuilt tile-map system (Figure 7) based on the initial design sketches from figure 1. I am satisfied with the result, however, I wasted a significant amount of time slicing the sprites into their correct dimension (64x64).
Programming Core Mechanics (C#)
Find the project files here.
Although, this was not an initial goal, programming a queue system to allow the player to take control of a crow (designed around FIFO) was significant in setting it apart from Unfair Mario (2011). The result is that the crow in position one would dequeue on a button press (Figure 8), and then after its death, it would respawn and enqueue to position three. This cycle repeats without flaw because the player can only control one crow at any one time (Figure 2).
bigCrowCont.HaltMovement();
var crow = crowQueue.Dequeue();
currentCharacter = crow;Figure 8: Dequeue (C#)
Conclusion & Reflection
Although development was longer than I anticipated, I believe the process was successful. As I enter post-production, I will begin to polish the game and then upload it onto Itch.io, I plan to showcase the project to my peers during our next webinar, and after that, I will reflect on the RI/E1.
References
Capello, D., 2021. Aseprite. [online] Aseprite.org. Available at: <https://www.aseprite.org/> [Accessed 13 March 2022].
Unity Asset Store. 2019. Platformer Set. [online] Available at: <https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/2d/environments/platformer-set-150023> [Accessed 5 April 2022].
CraftPix.net. 2021. Free Street Animal Pixel Art Asset Pack. [online] Available at: <https://craftpix.net/freebies/free-street-animal-pixel-art-asset-pack/> [Accessed 5 April 2022].
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